DISPLAY #2 – 05.11 – 13.11.2021
The Price for Fire
An exhibition by Rossella Nisio
In collaboration with Lorenzo Bassanelli / Organized by Sara Rajaei & Elian Somers
Het Wilde Weten / Robert Fruinstraat 35 / Rotterdam
Opening: Friday Nov 5, 18:00h*
Open: Saturday Nov 6, Sunday Nov 7, Friday Nov 12, Saturday Nov 13, 14:00h – 20:00h
Open by appointment: Monday Nov 8 – Thursday Nov 11, 16:00h – 20:00h
Message Rossella Nisio: r.nisio@mail.com
*Het Wilde Weten follows the current corona measures. To attend the opening on Friday a valid proof of vaccination or negative test (QR code) is required.
About The Price for Fire
In the afternoon of December 21, 1976, an accident shakes the torpid city of R, the artist’s hometown: a young man of 28 is killed when, ignited by faulty electric wiring, a can of paint thinner in his room catches fire. The accident was only succinctly reported in local and left-wing newspapers, but was deeply felt by the politically involved youth of R. The young man, M, was known as an activist and intellectual within a number of far-left groups. A proponent of spontaneous social action, he had been an adherent of the workers’ movements that had emerged in 1968. Born after World War II in a stifling provincial environment where no substantial change seemed possible, M held hopes of social upheaval, but ultimately wouldn’t survive the turn of the historical tide. Behind the engaged public persona however, M had entrusted his inner disillusionment and anguish to an alter-ego, whom he named “drifter,” subject of a number of poems he wrote. The poems, together with elements from the last years of his life, shape the core of The Price for Fire.
Through the elusive figure of M and the meandering eye of the camera, The Price for Fire explores narratives of unrest and resistance from an intimate perspective. Bridging collective and individual experiences of what became known as the Sessantotto in Italy, the work considers questions that era left open.
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Rossella Nisio is an artist based in Rotterdam whose work has a focus on the relationship of history, memory and imagination. In 2019 she earned an MA in Fine Art and Design in the Lens-Based program at the Piet Zwart Institute. She is a resident artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2021-22.
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The Price for Fire was developed in collaboration with Lorenzo Bassanelli, and features the participation of Benjamin Akira Tallamy and Katherine Drake. It was made with the support of the Tijl Fonds and the Mondriaan Fonds.
The event is part of the public program DISPLAY initiated by Het Wilde Weten. The DISPLAY program is kindly supported by the Mondriaan Fonds. With special thanks to Summer Lee for the poster design.